this was a bit disappointing. all the reviews i read save nate’s were glowing in how great they thought this was. it was fine, but not worth all that praise. the material wasn’t new at all, it was pretty compelling, but not, ‘oh my god, what’s gonna happen’, and was uneven, like nate said. the first part seemed like the filmmaker thought ‘i’m gonna blow away all the myths of high school girls athletics’ as we get the players interviews where they talk tough and act aggressive and see the clips of the 30’s players in dresses. and the stupid toy betrays this intention, i think. then we follow darnellia and forget all that and it’s ok, but could have been a lot tighter.
he really likes the tight closeups in the interviews. in the 2 instances i remember where it wasn’t that tight - the coach reading einstein and devon in her room - the setting is really interesting, and he really makes notes of the artifacts there. i guess he made a choice, but with the little bit he tried to push a cultural divide as a theme, setting and more details could have really beefed things up and added some complexity.
the coach was pretty nuts, but i like his style of coaching - let the players figure it out. it was funny at halftime of the final game when he’s just gushing about how great they did and darnellia is actually trying to do some coaching. but the ‘inner circle’ thing kind of made it a philosophy, so he’s not just rolling the ball out there.
it was nice hearing mystic singing at the end. i had forgotten about her, but i like her voice.
What has the world come to when the guy who gives Three Amigos 5 stars is the voice of reason?
Left by nate on August 18th, 2006